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spira_rp2015-12-09 05:08 pm
raindownhell) wrote in spira_rp2015-12-09 05:08 pm
Entry tags:
Some legends are told...
Aerith had been right; it wasn't a quick journey back.
Lea's route, achieved by pressing further into what Fang came to know as the Bancouri border-desert and then backtracking along the river was, indeed, longwinded. It was also safer, that much was clear. Ignoring the infrequent swells and waterholes along the route, the number of monsters was greatly diminished from what they could see roaming in the distance. Smaller plate wyrms, wyverns and helms could very occasionally be seen beyond a haze of wind-thrown sand, all species better left alone.
Desert monsters were typically large reptiles, creatures that didn't crave water like mammals did, or smaller pack hunters who got most of their water from their kills and seldom visited the riverside except to hunt at waterholes. The waterholes, while more dangerous than the fast-moving river, were still something of a boon, for they often saw small herds of prey animals, or larger lone monsters, which were of as much interest to them in terms of food as they were the other creatures that hunted there.
Mercifully, the waterside hunters weren't too dangerous. Weird gators with false, hinged faces had come as a surprise to Fang, but the one foolish enough to pick a fight with her was easily dispatched with a spearpoint to the soft, unarmoured flesh beneath. Gigantoads, though slow, were better skirted around. Unlike the gator, they were not edible. Their poisonous skin saw to that.
The long journey didn't bother her, at least. She'd been on the road for longer getting from where she had started to the Chocobo Eater and travelling with a supply of fresh, flowing water was much more preferable to stopping and filling up heavy waterskins every few miles. It helped that the river allowed them to wash the sand, if not the chocobo, away from them more regularly.
The company wasn't bad, either. She wasn't sure they were hardened Hunters like she was, she couldn't shake that feeling, but if they had only recently picked it up as a job, they were learning remarkably quickly. Where she was from, Hunting was a lifestyle, not a job, something you took to from a very young age to build up your strength and stamina. It wasn't the case here. It was lucrative, apparently, but still something you could just elect to take on or give up as you pleased. She felt fortunate to have joined up with a trio with formidable fighting and healing skills, nonetheless.
Abilities aside, it helped that they also weren't bad people. Lea was more social than Saix, and Aerith was more levelheaded and friendly than both of them, for all Saix attempted to look like a voice of reason for the group. All three had one thing in common. They were odd. The boys were very powerful fighters, but the way they handled themselves, and their weapons, and their elements, just didn't feel normal, not when they seemed almost naive about certain aspects of Chakra manipulation while using it in odd ways otherwise. Something told her that they just weren't normal for the world. Being displaced by centuries didn't make her feel any differently about it. Aerith was just different. Absurdly good at healing, that was for certain, and very in tune with the natural world.
She had a feeling that they probably felt the same about her. Even though they were definitely strange, they knew more about the world than she did. The collapsed city had been her tell, she was sure of it.
As she thought about it, she hardly noticed the warmth gradually leaving the air. Night was falling. Travelling at night would probably have been easier on them all, especially the chocobos, but sleeping in the heat of the day wasn't a viable option. It was time to find somewhere to set up camp.
Lea's route, achieved by pressing further into what Fang came to know as the Bancouri border-desert and then backtracking along the river was, indeed, longwinded. It was also safer, that much was clear. Ignoring the infrequent swells and waterholes along the route, the number of monsters was greatly diminished from what they could see roaming in the distance. Smaller plate wyrms, wyverns and helms could very occasionally be seen beyond a haze of wind-thrown sand, all species better left alone.
Desert monsters were typically large reptiles, creatures that didn't crave water like mammals did, or smaller pack hunters who got most of their water from their kills and seldom visited the riverside except to hunt at waterholes. The waterholes, while more dangerous than the fast-moving river, were still something of a boon, for they often saw small herds of prey animals, or larger lone monsters, which were of as much interest to them in terms of food as they were the other creatures that hunted there.
Mercifully, the waterside hunters weren't too dangerous. Weird gators with false, hinged faces had come as a surprise to Fang, but the one foolish enough to pick a fight with her was easily dispatched with a spearpoint to the soft, unarmoured flesh beneath. Gigantoads, though slow, were better skirted around. Unlike the gator, they were not edible. Their poisonous skin saw to that.
The long journey didn't bother her, at least. She'd been on the road for longer getting from where she had started to the Chocobo Eater and travelling with a supply of fresh, flowing water was much more preferable to stopping and filling up heavy waterskins every few miles. It helped that the river allowed them to wash the sand, if not the chocobo, away from them more regularly.
The company wasn't bad, either. She wasn't sure they were hardened Hunters like she was, she couldn't shake that feeling, but if they had only recently picked it up as a job, they were learning remarkably quickly. Where she was from, Hunting was a lifestyle, not a job, something you took to from a very young age to build up your strength and stamina. It wasn't the case here. It was lucrative, apparently, but still something you could just elect to take on or give up as you pleased. She felt fortunate to have joined up with a trio with formidable fighting and healing skills, nonetheless.
Abilities aside, it helped that they also weren't bad people. Lea was more social than Saix, and Aerith was more levelheaded and friendly than both of them, for all Saix attempted to look like a voice of reason for the group. All three had one thing in common. They were odd. The boys were very powerful fighters, but the way they handled themselves, and their weapons, and their elements, just didn't feel normal, not when they seemed almost naive about certain aspects of Chakra manipulation while using it in odd ways otherwise. Something told her that they just weren't normal for the world. Being displaced by centuries didn't make her feel any differently about it. Aerith was just different. Absurdly good at healing, that was for certain, and very in tune with the natural world.
She had a feeling that they probably felt the same about her. Even though they were definitely strange, they knew more about the world than she did. The collapsed city had been her tell, she was sure of it.
As she thought about it, she hardly noticed the warmth gradually leaving the air. Night was falling. Travelling at night would probably have been easier on them all, especially the chocobos, but sleeping in the heat of the day wasn't a viable option. It was time to find somewhere to set up camp.
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She'd happily made use of the river to keep clean, cheekily telling Lea that he wasn't allowed to peek, just to see if he'd blush.
She hadn't been able to have a proper talk with Lea, however. Not one where they couldn't be overheard or interrupted, at least. She was sure he, and Saix, had their suspicions about Fang, and she had her own, but there hadn't been a real opportunity to discuss them without it being very obvious that was what they were doing.
Similarly, she'd hadn't had a real opportunity to talk to Fang. Saix and Lea were odd, she knew, and Aerith was used to it, but she wondered if Fang had picked up on it as obviously, with herself being odd, too.
They were similar, in some ways, and very, very different in others. Fang was a natural hunter, which had definitely caught Saix's attention, but she was skilled in a way that suggested years of doing it, rather than unusual natural talent, like Saix and Lea had.
They were, Aerith would admit, a very good team, and she liked Fang even if she couldn't shake that sense that there was something off about her other than what she knew and didn't know. That sense of an impression on her, from something else, lingered, and it was faint, but it lurked, at the edge of Aerith's senses.
She wondered what Fang was going to do once they got to Rabanastre. She didn't seem like she had somewhere specific to go, she'd just wanted to head for civilisation. On her wild caught chocobo, that Aerith had grown brave enough to pet, and with little more than her weapon and traveling supplies to make her way around.
She looked around when Saix spoke. The air was getting chilly. The great thing about having Lea around on a desert evening was that you never had to worry about getting cold, at least.
"That might be a good idea," she agreed, petting her chocobo's neck.
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"Over there," she said, pointing out a collection of boulders nearby. They were immense, but weathered, and camping against something like that meant that you never had your back exposed. "Looks like a good place to stop for the night."
Her Chocobo warked. He was a good bird, for a wild caught specimen. He was aggressive towards monsters, and handy in a battle, but mild-mannered enough with the rest of the party's captive-bred mounts.
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He shared his other team mates' feelings on her strangeness, though. It would have been nice to discuss the matter, but there was no real opportunity to do so. It would either have to wait until they were back at Rabanastre, where it was possible that Fang would split from them and render the subject a non-issue, or they would have to discuss the entire subject on the road, with her present.
If she had secrets, he thought, they could hardly be any worse than theirs.
"Good idea," he said, partly to Saix and partly to Fang's choice of camping ground. A wall behind them meant one watch instead of two, and with Fang's monstrous bird standing guard, they would be much more safe than they could possibly be out in the open. He was looking forward to spending a few hours out of the saddle.
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Saix was also very much looking forward to getting out of the saddle for the day. He and his chocobo tolerated each other, but Saix was still happier when he wasn't riding it, and it was happier that way, too.
"We can be settled before it gets too dark," he said, his voice soft. Dark also meant cold, out here, and he knew Lea wasn't fond of the cold. Saix wasn't a fan either, these days, but he had less reason to be unfond of it than Lea did.
He urged his chocobo on, towards the chosen spot. They could tend the birds, get a fire going, always a quick task with Lea around, and then tend to themselves. Saix would be quite happy to live like this a while longer, if he was honest. Well, if it wasn't for the chocobos, anyway.
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She petted her chocobo again and it followed Saix's towards their chosen camping grounds for the night, and she flashed Lea a quick smile. She'd been living with him since arriving in Rabanastre, and it was a cosy arrangement, if not a formal one. The flower selling went quite well when she was there to do it. She'd progressed from a basket to a cart, and she could probably do with a bigger cart.
Nominally, she was making money so she could get a place in Rabanastre on her own, but, well... she liked being at Lea's, and he seemed to have grown used to all the flowers everywhere now. Not to mention that if she left there, she wouldn't be able to come and play healer for them on expeditions like this, not with her own rent to pay.
"I hope the flowers are okay," she said, with a slight frown.
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"They'll be okay," he said.
Making camp wasn't too difficult an affair. The riverbank, at this point, was monster free and largely level, so with a backing of rocks as protection they each unpacked their sleeping things and the food they'd be eating. Lea went looking for dry plant material to burn for the night and came back loaded with it. If there was something deserts had in abundance, it was dry plant material. When he returned, the camp was set up and felt cosy, if cold.
"Looks like I'm lighting the fire again," he said, doing his best to sound put upon. He didn't do a very good job of it. It was hard to complain about lighting fires seriously when you were, well, him.
He arranged some of the dry fuel in the pit that had been made for the fire and put the rest aside, a good distance away. He dropped a small fireball on top and the pile erupted into flame. He added some larger sticks, mostly driftwood that had become stuck in the bank in the wet season and left there when the water receded, on top of the fire and stood back.
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"I can't imagine why you always get landed with that job," she said airily, pulling thick parcels of meat from the saddlebags.
While fruit and vegetables hadn't been easy to come by on the way, they hadn't been entirely absent. A two-season weather system meant that during the wet season things sprouted from the sodden, sandy soil and they'd managed to find a few of these things along the banks of the river. Nothing special, just a few wild onions and edible grass roots, but enough to make a stew or skewered meat a bit more interesting.
"Stew or roast?" She asked.
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"I have no preference," he said, in answer to Fang's question. It wasn't a complete truth; he generally preferred his meat roasted, but the evening promised cold air, and a stew was more warming and filling to see them through it.
He relieved his own chocobo of its burden, finally, the tethered claw of the chocobo eater floating eerily on the end of its tether. The bird warked once before stepping neatly over to join the rest, where Aerith stood with the greens. Then Saix made his way over towards their chosen sleeping area making sure to give Lea a brief dig in the shoulder as he passed him. The fire was already deliciously warm and inviting.
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"I vote for stew," she said, answering Fang. What she wouldn't give for a plate of salad, at this point. She didn't know how the boys managed with their choice of diet, but she longed for lettuce. Stew with some wild onions and roots was the closest she'd get right now, though.
A nice warm stew and snuggling up in her sleeping bag sounded not half bad, anyway.
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She got the stew together quickly enough. She fetched and boiled the water, adding a few drops of potion to purify it, prepared the vegetables, threw them in to flavour the stock and set about cutting up the tougher bits of meat into smaller chunks. A boiling would do them wonders, especially after she ruthlessly tenderised them against a cleaned rock.
Trail food was never going to be five star cuisine, but it was edible, warming and nourishing enough to fill you up and keep you going on a long, or in this case very long, trip.
Before long, all four were seated around a roaring fire in the darkness of the desert, all waiting for the stew to be done.
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Either way, the fire was most welcome. It was larger than strictly necessary and nearly engulfed the stewpot that, like the Chocobo Eater's creepy claw, was floating, unheld, above the inferno while it bubbled.
He couldn't wait to get back to Rabanastre, the place that he was starting to consider 'home'. The nights were hardly less cold there, but the paved streets held in the heat of the day and the stone buildings, while they kept the occupants cool in the daytime, did provide a little warmth after being baked by the sun all day. He'd laughed about his little apartment having a fireplace when he'd first moved in, but it hadn't lasted, not after he found himself lighting it more often than not.
He found himself wondering what Fang was going to do when they all reached the city.
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He enjoyed this. He was with the people that mattered, and away from the ones that mattered in unfortunate ways, in an environment he enjoyed. It was growing cold, and he wouldn't object to the creature comforts of a bed, and a shower, and washing machines, and not requiring chocobos to get around, but on the whole this was... pleasant.
His face showed it, too. Saix's expression was serene in a way it very rarely was as he looked out across the sands, watching for shifting shadows that were more than moving light or tricks of the eyes in the darkness.
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She didn't need to hold her hands out to the fire. It wasn't cold enough for that yet, and Lea was very, very good at setting up camp fires that didn't require constant tending to get them going properly. They were hot immediately, and you benefited from them straight away. She watched the stew in the pot, with her hands looped around her legs, seeming deep in thought for a moment. The party wasn't silent, but it was quiet. Saix was giving off this sense of serenity and contentment he'd had every night since they'd caught the chocobo eater, Lea was steeling himself for a night in the chill, again, and Fang...
She wasn't sure about Fang. She seemed used to this, like this kind of thing was something approaching normal for her.
They'd be back in Rabanastre before long, now. She doubted Fang knew what to expect from the city. Aerith hadn't known what to expect from the city. Everywhere had been different from Midgar, for her, and yet, even though Rabanastre was in a desert, the world beneath and around it had pulsed with a cacophony of life that had been absent from Midgar and its surroundings. There had been people, and some animals, but the world around it had been muted, drained. She hadn't realised that until she'd got away from Midgar.
"You've never been to Rabanastre before, have you?" She asked, breaking the quiet to turn her attention to Fang. She knew the answer, of course, but it didn't seem polite to jump to the conclusion.
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It wasn't a mean little laugh, she had just been waiting for a question like that. She looked down at her hands for a moment and then turned her attention to the fire. She gazed into it for a long, quiet moment. She didn't even know what to expect from a desert city. She'd seen deserts, just small ones on the edge of scrubland, but had only heard about the large, sprawling expanses of sand in the stories of those who had travelled much further afield than she had.
"All I know about it is what you three have told me," she added.
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He disliked the cold nights, disliked cold. He knew he probably went a little overboard on the fire, but he didn't care. Bigger was better when it came to the two-for-one benefit of warmth and a monster deterrent.
He listened to Aerith and Fang speak, looking around the bonfire at them. It wouldn't be too unusual if Fang hadn't visited Rabanastre. He doubted that the vast majority of the population of Spira had, but it wasn't that point that made her seem a little off, or at least not that alone.
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Sometimes, Saix still wondered if she was a Ryoka who'd been here for a while but hadn't encountered the big population centres to get the education he and the Order had received. They had gravitated to them, he remembered, but they'd also been separated on their arrival, and had searched for each other. Everyone had descended on Rabanastre, in the end, because it was frequented by the kind of slightly shady but not necessarily outright villainous people that the various members of the former Organization had come into contact with.
Luxord had fallen in with gamblers and sky pirates, Saix remembered. Xigbar had attached himself to the most powerful people in his immediate vicinity. Larxene had found someone best described as her ideal match.
Lea had come to them the long way around, venturing to Rabanastre precisely because it was a good starting point if you were looking for someone due to being one of the trade and travel hubs on the continent.
What if they hadn't met those people that had reunited them? Would they have been able to make their way living in the wilderness, as Fang evidently had? Would they come to know a lot about the flora and fauna of this world, and little about the culture?
Or was Fang something else?
Saix couldn't truthfully tell, and he listened intently, but without giving away that he was paying so much attention.
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Her smile became a little sad as she looked into the fire. "There's a whole world out there I'd never seen, or experienced. I'm only just realising how much I'd missed."
She turned her attention to Fang again, smiling softly. "Rabanastre's a big city. It brims with life, of all kinds," she said. "You can see airships taking off and coming in to land, and people of all species. It never really goes quiet, even at night, although it gets cold," she added. "Even though it's smaller than Midgar was, there's a lot more life. The flowers don't like the desert weather much, but they still grow more easily in Rabanastre than they ever did in Midgar. That's why I'm selling flowers there; I'm one of the only ones who can get flowers to grow in a desert, and in the process, I can fill Rabanastre with a bit more of the kind of life it isn't teeming with."
She looked back at the fire, shyly. "I didn't go to Rabanastre expecting to do that," she admitted. "I didn't really know what I was going to do. I was a little lost when I first arrived."
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He hadn't spent much time in Midgar, but he had stayed there for long enough to know that it was worlds apart from Dalmasca's desert capital. Midgar was apparently the pinnacle of Spiran modernity, at least on the continent of Valendia. It was a monstrous place, all girders, functional metalwork and pollution below with very neat, very deliberate houses and businesses above. Rabanastre, on the other hand, was an old, old city made from stone, some of it intricately carved and some worn with age, that had been added to over the centuries as the need arose.
They were worlds apart.
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"You won't be the only one," she said.
She wondered how similar the cities here would be to those she knew. Were cities really the same the world over, once you got past the architecture? It would certainly be something to find out. The villages she'd seen had been much the same, but also ... markedly different, in subtle, odd little ways.
A bit like her, she thought wryly.
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"It helps if you're not alone," she said, softly. Fang was, she suspected, or had been, but even if she didn't stay with them for long after getting to Rabanastre, they could at least help her find her feet. "We could help?"
She smiled again, a trace awkwardly, and glanced back at the fire, looking into the flames. "It's," she hesitated, "it's hard, feeling alone. I know that better than anyone."
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They'd all been alone, at one point or another. Axel had abandoned him, and their plans, in the Organization, leaving him floundering with no idea of what step to take next except to carry on into the emptiness and his eventual confrontation with the keyblade bearer. Lea had landed here on this world all alone, in an abandoned city, and been traded and conveyed like a parcel, with no idea of where he was, how to return, or whether he'd ever escape.
He didn't know much about Aerith's past, but she'd mentioned bits. He suspected that she had a problem with taking in stray puppies just as Lea had, and maybe some of that was borne out of whatever was fueling this now.
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Accepting help in the city would make her life easier but, on the other hand, she was ever-aware of the fact that by doing so she would be revealing the depths of her lack of knowledge about the world.
She could get away with some things, like current events or intricate historical facts probably taught in every schoolhouse, by claiming to be from some small village out in the Bancouri Wildlands, but other things, the basics, such as currency, wouldn't fly. Even traders dealt in money sometimes.
She gave a small laugh. It would be easier for her to survive indefinitely out in the sticks than a city in this world. That didn't help her case with looking weird, did it?
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"We know you're not normal for this world," he said, addressing Fang without looking at her, and cutting to a point that Aerith seemed to prefer to dance around. "Rabanastre is a good place for those who are different to blend in, with a little assistance."
They'd received enough of that themselves, and it was true. With a little guidance, most weirdness went by without much comment in Rabanastre. The place was populated by enough different cultures and species, and saw enough mist mutants and other oddities that one person's weirdness simply merged into the colourful background of the city.
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"Saix," she said, her tone scolding, and then turned back to Fang and sighed. "We all have our secrets," she said. "You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to, but," she shrugged, gently, "we might be able to help at least a little, if you let us."
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They had all been thinking it, of course. They had been thinking it since they met her and she failed to know what Midgar was and what had befallen it, but he still hadn't quite expected him to just ...come out with it like that.
He should have known better. Isa had always been direct, and in a different way to his own straightforwardness.
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